Xu 19 generally does not participate in Gao Shenxing's discussions, firstly, he is really not interested in politics, he has always felt that soldiers should be pure, especially not to get involved in partisan disputes, and secondly, Xu 19 is actually very confused, he is actually like most officers and soldiers in his heart, he does not know what is wrong with the national army.

But this time, Xu Shijiu suddenly asked a question: "Lao Gao and Zihan, you say, if Lan Feng loses the battle, what will be the result?" ”

I don't know Weishenme, Xu 19 is not optimistic about the prospect of the Battle of Lanfeng, although the L Army, the Army, the 71st Army, the 74th Army and the army have actually formed a four-sided encirclement posture against the Tufeiyuan Division, but Xu 19 always feels that it will not be so easy to annihilate the Tufeiyuan Division

Gao Shenxing immediately echoed: "This is exactly what I am worried about, once the Battle of Lanfeng is lost, once the two heavy military groups of the Japanese army in North China and Central China advance rapidly westward along the Longhai Railway, then the more than 30 divisions gathered in eastern Henan will inevitably form a rout, and finally Zhengzhou will inevitably be lost, and the north gate of Wuhan will also be opened by the Japanese army." ”

Li Zihan disagreed, and said: "This is impossible, it is impossible to lose the battle of Lanfeng, besieging a division of the Japanese army with eighteen elite divisions, even if the Tufeiyuan division is one of the so-called seventeen permanent divisions, there is really no reason to be invincible, of course, the entire Henan, including Zhengzhou, will definitely give up in the end, but it will never be so fast." ”

"What if?" Gao Shenxing insisted, "What if the battle of Lanfeng ends up losing?" ”

"yes, what if you lose?" Xu Shijiu interjected again, "I don't know if you have heard, it is said that the command has formulated a plan, once the battle of Lanfeng is lost, the Yellow River embankment will be dug up, and the flooding of the Yellow River will block the way for the Japanese army to march to Wuhan, I really can't imagine it......"

Xu Shijiu's words stopped abruptly, and the atmosphere suddenly became solemn.

"Dig up the Yellow River embankment?" Li Zihan couldn't help but be taken aback when he heard this, he really didn't take this layer into account, as Xu Jiujiu and Gao Shenxing were worried about, if the battle of Lanfeng was lost, if the national army really dug the Yellow River embankment, then for the people in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and even the entire Huaihe River basin, the consequences would be catastrophic.

The Yellow River originates in the Qinghai-Tibet snow region, flows through the Loess Plateau, the Guanzhong Plain and the North China Plain, and finally flows into the sea, since the Qin and Han dynasties, countless generations of emperors have been in Guanzhong, Chang'an to build a large number of buildings, the primeval forests on the Loess Plateau have been cut down almost completely, directly causing a large amount of soil erosion, and with the Yellow River cement and sand are down.

After the Yellow River goes out of Sanmenxia in the east, the river surface suddenly widens, the water flow also slows down suddenly, the sediment carried in the river water gradually settles down, and the riverbed increases year by year over time.

At present, it is the turn of spring and summer, and the Yellow River is in the season of abundant water, once the embankment bursts, the rushing flood will inevitably be annihilated, and the road of the Japanese army along the Longhai Railway to the west will certainly be blocked, but at the same time, tens of millions of people in the entire Huanghuai River basin will be displaced, not to mention how many people will drown and starve to death.

Li Zihan licked his lips and said with some astringency: "The national government shouldn't do this, right?" ”

"Probably not?" Gao Shenxing was stunned, because of Jiang Baili, he had actually heard about this terrible plan a long time ago, and said to Li Zihan and Xu Shijiu at the moment, "Zihan, captain, let me tell you the truth, the Nationalist Government has actually formulated this plan a long time ago, and it was also formulated by the German adviser Falkenhausen, originally last year when the North China Front Army of Little Japan drove south along the Pinghan Railway, Lao Jiang wanted to dig the embankment, but later the Battle of Songhu broke out, and the little Japan shifted the focus of the operation from North China to East China, and Lao Jiang did not dig the Yellow River embankment. But once the Battle of Lanfeng was lost this time, Lao Chiang would definitely dig the Yellow River embankment, and for him, it was far more important to die a few million people than to delay the Japanese army's westward advance. ”

"You're slandering." Li Zihan frowned and said, "I don't believe that the leader would do this." ”

"Don't believe me?" Gao Shenxing pursed his lips and said coldly, "Then let's wait and see." ”

Li Zihan drank the porridge in the bowl and snorted: "I still don't believe that the battle of Lanfeng will be lost, so I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed, Lao Gao, and I'm afraid the leader won't have a chance to dig the embankment." ”

The officers and soldiers of the 19th Brigade quickly gathered and hurriedly marched west with the main force of the 58th Division, and that night, the 74th Army rushed to Lanfeng, and the 71st Army and the 1st Army arrived at the same time, and launched a fierce attack on the Tufeiyuan Division entrenched in Lanfeng, Luowangzhai, Sanyiji, and Quxingji overnight.

Song Xilian's 71st Army showed extremely strong combat effectiveness and hit outside Lanfeng City that night.

On May day, the 74th Army recaptured Lanfeng Station, the army recaptured Luowangji, and the 71st Army successively captured many Japanese strongholds on the periphery of Lanfeng.

After the restoration of Lanfeng and the resumption of traffic on the Longhai Railway, Yu Feipeng, the Minister of Communications, who had been waiting in Zhengzhou for several days, could finally breathe a sigh of relief and sent several trains to Shangqiu overnight, and the hundreds of wagons of war supplies stranded in Shangqiu could finally be re-transported.

At the same time, the Tufeiyuan Division was surrounded by the Eastern Henan Corps in Sanyi Village.

After hearing the news, Lao Jiang was greatly excited, and once again sent a warrant to Xue Yue and the commanders of the troops participating in the battle on the front line, encouraging them to fight bravely to kill the enemy and make contributions to the country.

Due to the large number of factions in the national army, Lao Jiang likes to balance and often makes the composition of a unit very complicated, so the command system of the national army has always been very problematic, and the same is true of Xue Yue's eastern Henan corps, except for Li Hansoul, who also listens to the greeting, the rest of the people like Hu Zongnan, Gui Yongqing, Yu Jishi, Song Xilian and Huang Jie, Xue Yue cannot command at all.

Therefore, Lao Jiang specially issued a warrant to the commanders of the troops on the front line before the general attack, requiring them to strictly obey Xue Yue's unified command, and after receiving Lao Chiang's warrant, Hu Zongnan, Song Xilian, Yu Jishi, Gui Yongqing and others all chose to obey on the surface, but they still disagreed with Xue Yue's instructions in private.

The appearance of the various units of the national army finally gave the Tufeiyuan Division a chance to break through.

Kenji Dohihara, the old devil, is still level, and it is not in vain that he is called a China expert, at least he still knows a lot about several national army commanders of the Yudong Corps, and when life and death are at stake, the old devil did not stand still, but launched a counterattack on the position of the 7th Army with the cooperation of the aviation on the P day.

Kenji Dohihara's choice of Gui Yongqing's military breakthrough was deliberate, because Gui Yongqing's army had two previous convictions of fleeing without a fight in Dangshan and Lanfeng, and in Kenji Dohihara's view, the first army was far inferior to the rest of the national armies in terms of both fighting will and combat effectiveness.

And the final facts have fully proved that the choice of soil and fertilizer is extremely wise.

Under the onslaught of the Tufeiyuan Division, the first army suffered heavy casualties, Gui Yongqing immediately made a decision, ordered the troops to get out of the way to temporarily avoid the Japanese front, and at the same time strictly ordered the Long Muhan RR Division behind the first army to hold the position, in fact, he wanted to use Long Muhan's RR division as cannon fodder.

As a result, the Tufeiyuan Division easily broke through the encirclement of the Eastern Henan Corps, which had been formed with great difficulty, and calmly retreated to the vicinity of Hongmiao and Yangguji to re-fortify under the cover of the aviation force.

After Lao Jiang heard the news in Wuhan, he was so angry that he hated Gui Yongqing and Long Muhan who had repeatedly badly damaged his big things, which also laid the groundwork for the later liquidation, after the Battle of Lanfeng, Gui Yongqing was quickly dismissed, but he finally saved his life, but Long Muhan was directly shot by Lao Jiang, and Long Muhan was also the first senior general of the Whampoa Department to be shot for poor combat.

Of course, that's all for later.

After the Tufeiyuan Division jumped out of the encirclement of the national army, broke through to Hongmiao, and Yang Guji re-fortified, Xue Yue also quickly adjusted his tactical deployment, trying to seize the opportunity of Zuihou to encircle and annihilate the Tufeiyuan Division in the area of Hongmiao and Yangguji, however, Xue Yue had no time, because Huang Jie's 8th Army could no longer withstand it.

After Li Hansoul's Army and Yu Jishi's 74th Army were transferred to participate in the Battle of Lanfeng, Dangshan was left with only Huang Jie's 8th Army and Li Xianzhou's Army, and the two armies faced the Japanese army's 13th and 16th main divisions, plus Little Japan had just repaired the airport in Xuzhou, and the bombers flew like mosquitoes to bomb, and the battle could not be fought at all.

The 8th Army and the 1st Army withdrew to Shangqiu after May P, Cheng Qian, commander-in-chief of the First Theater of Operations, and Xue Yue, commander-in-chief of the First Corps, strictly ordered Huang Jie to defend Shangqiu, and before the Tufeiyuan Division was not annihilated, even if he fought to Zuihou alone, he was absolutely not allowed to give up his position, but Huang Jie did not listen at all, and led the main force to retreat to Kaifeng, leaving only Peng Linsheng's 18th Pei to stick to Shangqiu, Peng Linsheng's 18th Pei only held on to Shangqiu for one night, and the Japanese army just launched a tentative attack at dawn the next day, Peng Linsheng also withdrew directly to Qixian with his troops.

Shangqiu was lost, the entire eastern Henan corps was completely exposed to the Japanese 13th, 16th divisions under the front, by this time, the encirclement and annihilation of the Tufeiyuan division of the fighter plane has been completely lost, in order to avoid the eastern Henan corps by the Japanese army in central China, North China two heavy groups counter-surrounded, Cheng Qian had to order the eastern Henan corps to withdraw to Kaifeng, at the same time, after consulting Chairman Chiang, decided to blow up the Yellow River embankment in Zhaokou, Zhongmu County, due to the unfavorable terrain attempt, Zuihou changed to break the embankment at Huayuankou.